YOUNG JUSTICE EPISODE 11!
Also some brief thoughts about the whole DC Reboot of Awful, specifically the Red Hood and the Outlaws Character Derailment debacle that exploded across Tumblr.
There will be obvious spoilers.
Due to having been spoiled by Tumblr, I already knew that the Terror Twins would Superboy and Miss Martian in disguise. Except not because they're taking the real Terror Twins' places. That I did not know. Cool.
...I did not anticpate Tommy's SEXY AS HECK SOUTHERN ACCENT OH MY GOSH.
(And I swear I've heard his voice before. Sounds like Billy Numerous from Teen Titans.)
CUE OPENING.
Cut back in to Supberboy and Miss Martian on a prison transport together with Mister Freeze and Icicle Jr. AWKWARDNESS ABOUNDS LOL.
AND OH MY GOSH FLASHBACK TO THE BRIEFING AND BATS IS TALKING ABOUT THE FOUR ICE VILLAINS THAT ATTACKED ON JULY FOURTH IN THE PILOT CONTINUITYGASM!
Oh joy. Icicle Jr. is hitting on M'gann already. Can't she get a break from sexually harassing douchewaffles for once?
We enter the prison. Amanda Waller is amazingly tough and no-nonsense and I love her instantly. WHY ARE YOU SO AWESOME BB?
HASFLKAHFSLK HUGO STRANGE IS THE PRISON PYSCHIATRIST THAT IS NOT GOOD IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. OH NOOOOOOOO!
Okay, Supes and M'gann are in cells with the two younger ice villains now. Next morning. May I reiterate for the thousandth time how ridiculously gorgeous the backgrounds are?
HA HA HA THE BRICK WALL GUY FROM "WELCOME TO HAPPY HARBOR" IS IN HERE TOO OH CONTINUITY HOW I LOVE YOU.
ALSO SUPERBOY'S SOUTHERN ACCENT IS KILLING ME. FANGIRLING ALL OVER THE PLACE IN HERE. YES CONNER, PLEASE DO CONTINUE TO USE THAT ACCENT THE WHOLE EPISODE.
OH HEY MAMMOTH. NICE TO SEE YOU TOO. ACTUALLY NOT, BECAUSE THE EXPOSED MUSCLE TISSUE STILL CREEPS ME THE HECK OUT.
Icicle Jr. introduces Superboy to his father, Icicle Sr. They commiserate about being the "kids" of the "Big Man". There's a cameo of the Riddler.
Oh yay! Prison fight! One of the villains (guy with an eye-mask, can't decipher who he is in the DCU), almost reveals Conner's identity. M'gann, watching from behind a window, quickly mentally forces the suggestion that he's Tommy Terror. Go M'gann!
Conner tunes in to the Great Ice Villain Prison Meeting with his super-hearing. And learns that they're planning a mass jailbreak of EVERY SINGLE VILLAIN IN THE PRISON. OH NO AGAAAAAAIN!
After the commercial break, Dr. Ivo passes out new and highly-suspicious prison uniforms to everyone. Conner updates M'gann. M'gann updates Kaldur, who is sitting out in the Martian bio-ship with Red Tornado nearby.
LOLOLOL HUGO STRANGE'S PSYCHIATRIC SESSION WITH SUPES AND MISS M. "Your anti-social tendacies are a road-block to rehabilitiation, and are often the result of a conflict with a mother-figure. Hmm?" CLOSE BUT NOT QUITE HUGO. IT'S THE "DADDY" FIGURE CONNER IS HAVING ANGST ABOUT.
CONNER DON'T YOU YELL AT M'GANN WHEN SHE'S AIRING OUT YOUR DADDY ISSUES. SHAME ON YOU FOR MOCKING HER LOVE OF SITCOMS! Aww, but he looks so immediately remorseful when he sees that that barb genuinely stung her. OH MY SHIP I LOVE YOU! MY SHIIIIIIP!
Ah ha ha ha and Icicle Jr. is unknowingly giving Superboy relationship advice. OH THE HILARITY!
JUST SO Y'ALL KNOW, I WOULD TOTALLY WATCH A PRISON SITCOM WHERE SUPERBOY AND ICICLE JR. ARE BROS AND TALK ABOUT THEIR DADDY ISSUES AND MISS MARTIAN TRIES TO GET KILLER FROST TO WATCH HER FAVORITE SHOWS ON THE PRISON TV AND SUPERBOY TRIES TO FIGURE OUT HIS FEELINGS FOR MISS MARTIAN WHILE TRYING TO MAINTAIN THEIR SIBLING COVER AND THEN WHEN THEY'RE MAKING OUT IN A PRISON BROOM CLOEST ICICLE JR. WOULD WALK IN HILARIOUSLY AND BE LIKE, "WOAH DUDES, DID NOT KNOW YOU WERE ABOUT THE TWINCEST! BRAIN BLEACH I NEED IT NOW!"
There's a snag in Icicle Sr.'s plan, as Killer Frost is inaccessible and Superboy offers his help and references Twin Telepathy.
The plan is in motion. Waller orders lockdown. M'gann saves a prison guard and Killer Frost turns on her. She calls to Superboy mentally saying she thinks her cover's blown and is abruptly cut off. SUPERBOY YELLS HER NAME TELEPATHICALLY IN HORROR HNNNNGGH I CANNOT DEAL.
AND HE'S BEGGING FOR HER TO RESPOND AND TELLING HER HE'S COMING WHILE PUNCHING THROUGH THE WALL!
CANNOT. DEAL.
TOO. MUCH. OTP.
Amanda Waller continues to be awesome and unflappable. Superboy tricks Icicle Jr. into taking some initiative. They go to Waller's office and Superboy turns the prison collars back on. Icicle Sr. is DISPLEASED and tries to rough up Waller. Hugo Strange, surprisingly, saves her. Okay, I kind of like you in this universe Hugo.
Freeze and thugs confront Superboy and Icicle Jr. There is a cool ice beam battle. Superboy manages to break through to the girls' side. M'gann's been frozen and Superboy goes berserk on Killer Frost and her thug companion. Then goes over and puts his face on the ice. AND THEN!
Superboy: M'gann please... don't leave me!
AJFALSKFJALSFKJAFSBBLARBLE OTP! OTP! O! T! P! WHY ARE YOU TWO SO AMAZING?!
And she hears him and breaks herself free! And then he kisses her WHILE ICICLE JR. IS STILL STANDING THERE HA HA HA HA OH MAN MY SITCOM SCENARIO IS EVEN MORE HILARIOUS IN ACTUAL ANIMATION.
AND THERE IS SOME MOANING? OH MY GOSH THIS IS THE HOTTEST-SOUNDING KISS EVER. HOT DAMN. THAT'S TONGUE. THAT IS HONEST TO GOODNESS OPEN MOUTH TONGUE.
THANK YOU FOREVER YOUNG JUSTICE WRITERS I LOVE YOU!
SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!
And lol at Icicle Jr.'s "Dad's going to kill me."
Oh shoot. I was right about Hugo Strange. HE WAS IN ON IT THE WHOLE TIME. DUH.
Wheeee! What a fun episode!
---
And now, on a less pleasant note...
"Red Hood and the Outlaws #1"
HA HA HA HATE. SO MUCH HATE YOU GUYS. IT COULD POWER A NUCLEAR PLANT.
When the scans first started appearing, oddly enough, I wasn't upset about Starfire sleeping with Arsenal. I mostly boggled at it all like, "BWUH?" and thought that it was completely bizarre and out of left field and so much WTH that I couldn't think straight for a moment. Then I shrugged and was like, "Whatever."
BUT THEN IT GOT WORSE. SO, SO MUCH WORSE.
Character derailment on all three main leads. Skeevy dialogue and implications. Excessively fanservicey art. Oh the art. It was gorgous, I won't deny, and Kory looked ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL, but it's sooooo much Male Gaze. And coupled with Starfire's character butchery it feels more than a little gross and unfortunate.
I'm most upset about Kory's character. Jason I like but I don't really follow. Ditto Roy. Kory I adored in all incarnations and was excited to see in a main DCU book. But that excitement has disipated.
In the furor over her new characterization there's been a lot of ugly sexism crawling around. I for one will not add to it. Kory being sexual and the having casual sex thing doesn't bother me one bit because 1) I don't care and 2) slut-shaming is gross and misogynistic and I won't contribute to it. No no no, what I hate is these three failtastic things:
1. The rendering of her previous bubbly and passionate personality completely inert. This did not need to happen. I don't care that it's a reboot and the characters are supposed to be "new", she was fine the way she was. She was happy, joyful, and full of life oh and also very sex-positive already and it does her a great disservice to turn her into a bored, apathetic, unfeeling, uncaring person.
2. The erasure of her relationship with Dick and the scrubbing out of any meaningful history she had with the Titans in general, whom she apparently does not remember or care about now. NO. DC WRITERS, WHEN WILL YOU LEARN THAT SCREWING WITH THE MANY FRIENDSHIPS OF THE VARIOUS TEEN TITANS AND TITANS LINE-UPS OR ANY FRIENDSHIP/RELETIONSHIP IN GENERAL JUST PISSES PEOPLE OFF?
3. The completely bizarre and needless "othering" and alien-ifying (shut up Safari that's a word) of the Tamaranian species, which contributes to the above points and also opens up a ton of plot holes. So Kory can apparently only see humans as sights and smells and thus can't tell the boys apart and has a short-term memory or SOMETHING COMPLETELY WEIRD THAT THEY CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN PROPERLY. Basically it means she's a goldfish. This raises way too many questions, because Word of Devil God said that all the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans stuff still happened. How did Dick and Kory's relationship function like this? How does Roy, who was presumably on the Titans, not know about it and have to be TOLD by Jason that this was a thing with Kory? How does JASON know? Didn't any of the other Titans realize she was like this? How did they manage to work as a team this way? How did Kory even meet up with Jason in the first place? EXPLAIN COMIC, EXPLAIN!
Whatever Scott Lobdell was going for with his characterization of Starfire, I don't think he realized how skeevy the framing of Starfire's "liberated sexuality" wound up reading to a lot of people. I don't think he gets her character one bit (or Jason and Roy's for that matter), and I'm not that inclined to trust that he'll get better. The whole thing is riddled with problematic themes. Jason and Roy almost feel like they're taking advantage of the fact that Starfire doesn't remember people well. Starfire's dialogue is stilted and unnatural and it feels hollow when she proclaims, "I do what I want when I want."
A simple comparison here (three links) and here, between the official version of the issue and a fan's rewritten dialogue, shows the problem best. Notice how that crawling feeling on the back of your neck goes away with the fan-version. Yeah. Lobdell, you kind of suck when you can be outshone by a random internet anon.
Oh, and the cherry on top of everything is that the plot goes nowhere. Jason breaks Roy out of prison, they escape and join up with Kory, they lounge around on the beach, Jason confers with some new character named Essence about... something... Roy and Kory hook up, something with some guy on the internet, issue end. That's nice too.
So! Glad I didn't waste three bucks buying this. I will, instead, involve myself in the beautiful fanon that has sprung up around this book, where everyone is in character and the stories are not creepy or objectifying. And Jason, Roy, and Kory hang out together being awesome and hot and distracting villains with their combined sexy and Kory and Essence do each others' hair and watch soap operas even though they don't "get" them and occasionally Donna comes over for a sleepover and they turn the boys out of the house and Jason and Roy sulk for a while but then go off and fight crime and be total dudebros AND EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL AND NOTHING HURTS.
There will be obvious spoilers.
Due to having been spoiled by Tumblr, I already knew that the Terror Twins would Superboy and Miss Martian in disguise. Except not because they're taking the real Terror Twins' places. That I did not know. Cool.
...I did not anticpate Tommy's SEXY AS HECK SOUTHERN ACCENT OH MY GOSH.
(And I swear I've heard his voice before. Sounds like Billy Numerous from Teen Titans.)
CUE OPENING.
Cut back in to Supberboy and Miss Martian on a prison transport together with Mister Freeze and Icicle Jr. AWKWARDNESS ABOUNDS LOL.
AND OH MY GOSH FLASHBACK TO THE BRIEFING AND BATS IS TALKING ABOUT THE FOUR ICE VILLAINS THAT ATTACKED ON JULY FOURTH IN THE PILOT CONTINUITYGASM!
Oh joy. Icicle Jr. is hitting on M'gann already. Can't she get a break from sexually harassing douchewaffles for once?
We enter the prison. Amanda Waller is amazingly tough and no-nonsense and I love her instantly. WHY ARE YOU SO AWESOME BB?
HASFLKAHFSLK HUGO STRANGE IS THE PRISON PYSCHIATRIST THAT IS NOT GOOD IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. OH NOOOOOOOO!
Okay, Supes and M'gann are in cells with the two younger ice villains now. Next morning. May I reiterate for the thousandth time how ridiculously gorgeous the backgrounds are?
HA HA HA THE BRICK WALL GUY FROM "WELCOME TO HAPPY HARBOR" IS IN HERE TOO OH CONTINUITY HOW I LOVE YOU.
ALSO SUPERBOY'S SOUTHERN ACCENT IS KILLING ME. FANGIRLING ALL OVER THE PLACE IN HERE. YES CONNER, PLEASE DO CONTINUE TO USE THAT ACCENT THE WHOLE EPISODE.
OH HEY MAMMOTH. NICE TO SEE YOU TOO. ACTUALLY NOT, BECAUSE THE EXPOSED MUSCLE TISSUE STILL CREEPS ME THE HECK OUT.
Icicle Jr. introduces Superboy to his father, Icicle Sr. They commiserate about being the "kids" of the "Big Man". There's a cameo of the Riddler.
Oh yay! Prison fight! One of the villains (guy with an eye-mask, can't decipher who he is in the DCU), almost reveals Conner's identity. M'gann, watching from behind a window, quickly mentally forces the suggestion that he's Tommy Terror. Go M'gann!
Conner tunes in to the Great Ice Villain Prison Meeting with his super-hearing. And learns that they're planning a mass jailbreak of EVERY SINGLE VILLAIN IN THE PRISON. OH NO AGAAAAAAIN!
After the commercial break, Dr. Ivo passes out new and highly-suspicious prison uniforms to everyone. Conner updates M'gann. M'gann updates Kaldur, who is sitting out in the Martian bio-ship with Red Tornado nearby.
LOLOLOL HUGO STRANGE'S PSYCHIATRIC SESSION WITH SUPES AND MISS M. "Your anti-social tendacies are a road-block to rehabilitiation, and are often the result of a conflict with a mother-figure. Hmm?" CLOSE BUT NOT QUITE HUGO. IT'S THE "DADDY" FIGURE CONNER IS HAVING ANGST ABOUT.
CONNER DON'T YOU YELL AT M'GANN WHEN SHE'S AIRING OUT YOUR DADDY ISSUES. SHAME ON YOU FOR MOCKING HER LOVE OF SITCOMS! Aww, but he looks so immediately remorseful when he sees that that barb genuinely stung her. OH MY SHIP I LOVE YOU! MY SHIIIIIIP!
Ah ha ha ha and Icicle Jr. is unknowingly giving Superboy relationship advice. OH THE HILARITY!
JUST SO Y'ALL KNOW, I WOULD TOTALLY WATCH A PRISON SITCOM WHERE SUPERBOY AND ICICLE JR. ARE BROS AND TALK ABOUT THEIR DADDY ISSUES AND MISS MARTIAN TRIES TO GET KILLER FROST TO WATCH HER FAVORITE SHOWS ON THE PRISON TV AND SUPERBOY TRIES TO FIGURE OUT HIS FEELINGS FOR MISS MARTIAN WHILE TRYING TO MAINTAIN THEIR SIBLING COVER AND THEN WHEN THEY'RE MAKING OUT IN A PRISON BROOM CLOEST ICICLE JR. WOULD WALK IN HILARIOUSLY AND BE LIKE, "WOAH DUDES, DID NOT KNOW YOU WERE ABOUT THE TWINCEST! BRAIN BLEACH I NEED IT NOW!"
There's a snag in Icicle Sr.'s plan, as Killer Frost is inaccessible and Superboy offers his help and references Twin Telepathy.
The plan is in motion. Waller orders lockdown. M'gann saves a prison guard and Killer Frost turns on her. She calls to Superboy mentally saying she thinks her cover's blown and is abruptly cut off. SUPERBOY YELLS HER NAME TELEPATHICALLY IN HORROR HNNNNGGH I CANNOT DEAL.
AND HE'S BEGGING FOR HER TO RESPOND AND TELLING HER HE'S COMING WHILE PUNCHING THROUGH THE WALL!
CANNOT. DEAL.
TOO. MUCH. OTP.
Amanda Waller continues to be awesome and unflappable. Superboy tricks Icicle Jr. into taking some initiative. They go to Waller's office and Superboy turns the prison collars back on. Icicle Sr. is DISPLEASED and tries to rough up Waller. Hugo Strange, surprisingly, saves her. Okay, I kind of like you in this universe Hugo.
Freeze and thugs confront Superboy and Icicle Jr. There is a cool ice beam battle. Superboy manages to break through to the girls' side. M'gann's been frozen and Superboy goes berserk on Killer Frost and her thug companion. Then goes over and puts his face on the ice. AND THEN!
Superboy: M'gann please... don't leave me!
AJFALSKFJALSFKJAFSBBLARBLE OTP! OTP! O! T! P! WHY ARE YOU TWO SO AMAZING?!
And she hears him and breaks herself free! And then he kisses her WHILE ICICLE JR. IS STILL STANDING THERE HA HA HA HA OH MAN MY SITCOM SCENARIO IS EVEN MORE HILARIOUS IN ACTUAL ANIMATION.
AND THERE IS SOME MOANING? OH MY GOSH THIS IS THE HOTTEST-SOUNDING KISS EVER. HOT DAMN. THAT'S TONGUE. THAT IS HONEST TO GOODNESS OPEN MOUTH TONGUE.
THANK YOU FOREVER YOUNG JUSTICE WRITERS I LOVE YOU!
SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!
And lol at Icicle Jr.'s "Dad's going to kill me."
Oh shoot. I was right about Hugo Strange. HE WAS IN ON IT THE WHOLE TIME. DUH.
Wheeee! What a fun episode!
---
And now, on a less pleasant note...
"Red Hood and the Outlaws #1"
HA HA HA HATE. SO MUCH HATE YOU GUYS. IT COULD POWER A NUCLEAR PLANT.
When the scans first started appearing, oddly enough, I wasn't upset about Starfire sleeping with Arsenal. I mostly boggled at it all like, "BWUH?" and thought that it was completely bizarre and out of left field and so much WTH that I couldn't think straight for a moment. Then I shrugged and was like, "Whatever."
BUT THEN IT GOT WORSE. SO, SO MUCH WORSE.
Character derailment on all three main leads. Skeevy dialogue and implications. Excessively fanservicey art. Oh the art. It was gorgous, I won't deny, and Kory looked ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL, but it's sooooo much Male Gaze. And coupled with Starfire's character butchery it feels more than a little gross and unfortunate.
I'm most upset about Kory's character. Jason I like but I don't really follow. Ditto Roy. Kory I adored in all incarnations and was excited to see in a main DCU book. But that excitement has disipated.
In the furor over her new characterization there's been a lot of ugly sexism crawling around. I for one will not add to it. Kory being sexual and the having casual sex thing doesn't bother me one bit because 1) I don't care and 2) slut-shaming is gross and misogynistic and I won't contribute to it. No no no, what I hate is these three failtastic things:
1. The rendering of her previous bubbly and passionate personality completely inert. This did not need to happen. I don't care that it's a reboot and the characters are supposed to be "new", she was fine the way she was. She was happy, joyful, and full of life oh and also very sex-positive already and it does her a great disservice to turn her into a bored, apathetic, unfeeling, uncaring person.
2. The erasure of her relationship with Dick and the scrubbing out of any meaningful history she had with the Titans in general, whom she apparently does not remember or care about now. NO. DC WRITERS, WHEN WILL YOU LEARN THAT SCREWING WITH THE MANY FRIENDSHIPS OF THE VARIOUS TEEN TITANS AND TITANS LINE-UPS OR ANY FRIENDSHIP/RELETIONSHIP IN GENERAL JUST PISSES PEOPLE OFF?
3. The completely bizarre and needless "othering" and alien-ifying (shut up Safari that's a word) of the Tamaranian species, which contributes to the above points and also opens up a ton of plot holes. So Kory can apparently only see humans as sights and smells and thus can't tell the boys apart and has a short-term memory or SOMETHING COMPLETELY WEIRD THAT THEY CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN PROPERLY. Basically it means she's a goldfish. This raises way too many questions, because Word of Devil God said that all the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans stuff still happened. How did Dick and Kory's relationship function like this? How does Roy, who was presumably on the Titans, not know about it and have to be TOLD by Jason that this was a thing with Kory? How does JASON know? Didn't any of the other Titans realize she was like this? How did they manage to work as a team this way? How did Kory even meet up with Jason in the first place? EXPLAIN COMIC, EXPLAIN!
Whatever Scott Lobdell was going for with his characterization of Starfire, I don't think he realized how skeevy the framing of Starfire's "liberated sexuality" wound up reading to a lot of people. I don't think he gets her character one bit (or Jason and Roy's for that matter), and I'm not that inclined to trust that he'll get better. The whole thing is riddled with problematic themes. Jason and Roy almost feel like they're taking advantage of the fact that Starfire doesn't remember people well. Starfire's dialogue is stilted and unnatural and it feels hollow when she proclaims, "I do what I want when I want."
A simple comparison here (three links) and here, between the official version of the issue and a fan's rewritten dialogue, shows the problem best. Notice how that crawling feeling on the back of your neck goes away with the fan-version. Yeah. Lobdell, you kind of suck when you can be outshone by a random internet anon.
Oh, and the cherry on top of everything is that the plot goes nowhere. Jason breaks Roy out of prison, they escape and join up with Kory, they lounge around on the beach, Jason confers with some new character named Essence about... something... Roy and Kory hook up, something with some guy on the internet, issue end. That's nice too.
So! Glad I didn't waste three bucks buying this. I will, instead, involve myself in the beautiful fanon that has sprung up around this book, where everyone is in character and the stories are not creepy or objectifying. And Jason, Roy, and Kory hang out together being awesome and hot and distracting villains with their combined sexy and Kory and Essence do each others' hair and watch soap operas even though they don't "get" them and occasionally Donna comes over for a sleepover and they turn the boys out of the house and Jason and Roy sulk for a while but then go off and fight crime and be total dudebros AND EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL AND NOTHING HURTS.